Step 4: Securing the Stand

Step 5: Conclusion

After all is said and done you now have a great conversation piece and something to be admired. I placed the Samurai display in a dedicated theater...

Intro:

I first had the idea of making Samurai armor as a Halloween costume but if I was going to put alot of effort into making one I didn't want it to be a Halloween only event. So I thought to myself, " Why not put it on display to enjoy all the time." The whole process of making the armor has been alot of fun and was a great creative thinking excercise. You'll see what I mean when I get to the materials portion of this Instructable.

Estimated Time:

What I've done so far has taken me about 16 hours. I say, "so far" because you really can put as much detail as you want into your project and the more detail the better. I intend to add more items to the Samurai in the future.

Tools List:

This is what I used and had on hand.

Hot Glue Gun

Scissors

Needle and Thread

Miter Saw or Table Saw

Drill with 1/32 Drill bit

Duct Tape

Spray paint ( I used 2 to 3 cans of Black)

Tape Measure

Materials List:

You really are only inhibited by your imagination and what you can find at a thrift store( '*' indicates thrift store purchase). Here is what I found and used.

Construction helmet or Hard Hat *

Faux Wood Blind Slats (left-over from hanging blinds in my house)

A Woman's Purse*

Sheet of Fabric (8'x4') *

Shoelaces (about 3 pair)

A few articles of clothing:

Button-up collared shirt

Long-sleeved Shirt

A Mask (I bought this online)

Lacrosse Gloves *

Shin Pads*

Some wood to build a frame for the display

Football Neoprene Armguards

Project Cost:

I recycled a few things and used tools I already had on hand so this made the project with everything you see here cost around $55 and the biggest part was the mask ($30). I bought about $14 of material from a thrift store, enough red shoelaces ($6) and spray paint ($5).

I had the same observation when I was assembling the helmet. I thought it should have a "shed water effect" but in alot of my searching it seemed to be normal. In my case, and most I assume, it definetly helps with the flare of the layers so they go out more. The way they are laced too was an issue. Though I do agree a blade would definetly be deflected better if it was done as you suggest. I'm not an expert so I used alot of images to come to the result that you see here. Here's an example.

one of the main things with that result is the labor and resources available to the japanese, looking at this you will notice that there is significant overlap, those sections are double the thickness. The doubling up may catch some rain but it will also provide the most possible protection, japanese armor as a whole is a great deal lighter weight than armors from places like europe. this is mostly affected by resources available to armor smiths and sword smiths. With a low percentage of iron present on the japanese islands there were limitations to what was considered reasonable use of resources. therefore leather and lacquered wood where used instead of iron for many spots, additionally chainmail of a lighter and more spacious matrix was used. the japanese sword is 'VERY' lightweight compared to a lot of other swords of the time, and almost exclusively a slashing weapon, although it was able to pierce this was not the main designed use. Because of this the armor still reflects a lot of the damage and is effective while being thinner and lighterweight. If you look at european armor and swords you notice the difference. Full Plate, and heavyladen, a knight in full plate armor could plow through samurai in the midst of a battlefield, the long swords they wielded where used more for piercing an bludgeoning, it would be a slaughter, for a short time. the samurai though would quickly outpace the knight in speed and stamina, lighter armor equals faster movement of both feet and sword, eventually they'd get a sword tip into an armpit or other small crack and chances are the knight would bleed out.

Thanks, I had alot of the material on hand if you needed material for the plates I've seen the big garbage cans made by rubbermaid that have been drawn up and cut out. Not sure how much the garbage can is though. I am not making them to sell however. Just for personal enjoyment.